GUELPH -- Kevin Yee's mother gave him a gold chain that he's worn around his neck for 40 years.
In the blink of an eye, the Guelph man's necklace was nabbed in a case of distraction theft.
"It means everything to me," he says.
"It's the thing I had on my neck for 40 years, right?"
Yee was delivering mail near Forest Street and Edinburgh Road South last week.
He says that a blue sedan was pulled over to the side of the road.
A woman who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle waved him over and asked him for directions to a hospital.
"She said, 'I don't speak much English and I need you to come closer.' So people needed help, so I went closer," he says.
The woman insisted on giving Yee a hug. He felt her hand around his neck and, when he pulled away, his necklace was gone.
"A confrontation ensued while she was back in the vehicle," Const. Kyle Grant with the Guelph police explains.
"A male driver said at that point, 'Here's your necklace,' and provided a gold necklace to the male and sped away."
That necklace, though, was a fake.
The day before this incident, Guelph Police say they had two other incidents involving jewelry.
These ones involved people being approached and offered jewelry for sale.
In one case, near Paisley Road and Memorial Crescent, a male declined. In the other, near Silver Creek Parkway and Speedvale Avenue, a woman accepted.
"The female did transport her to a nearby bank where a purchase was made for the jewelry. Further inspection of the jewelry did reveal, however, that it was fake," Grant says.
In that case, the victim was bilked out of over $2,000.
In all three incidents, the suspects are described as Middle Eastern, but police say it's too early to determine if the incidents are connected.
"I just hope these people will be caught quickly," Yee tells CTV.
Police say that if you're approached with a proposition that seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police.
